Stay
by gleekfreak12
Summary: Finn is depressed and confused after his breakup with Rachel. He finds refuge in an old friend/flame from his past and has to choose between letting go and fighting for what might already be gone. New character: Taryn Taylor
1. Lima, Ohio

Taryn stepped on to the unfamiliar laminate flooring of the unfamiliar school of the unfamiliar school she found herself in. The school was buzzing with activity as all the students walked around talking to friends or teachers, grabbing things out of their lockers and girls fixing their makeup. School is one of those things that are all the same. There's always a school hierarchy, there's always a queen bee, there's always the jocks, the nerds and the losers- but where did she fit in. I guess I'll have to just start off as the new kid. This was her senior year. She had wanted to complete it in her native New York, but her parents had been having financial trouble and moved down here to Lima, Ohio so her father could partner up with a auto shop business down here. Her parents were having trouble even paying for her brothers university fees. She'd have to balance school and work. She made her way through the throngs of unfamiliar faces to the main office. She gave her name to the secretary and as handed her class schedule and a small map of the school. "Taryn Taylor?" came a voice from behind the secretary. Her eyes darted up in surprise, only to land on the face of a tall, smiling, dark haired boy. "Finn Hudson... wow I did not expect to see you again." she laughed, looking at how tall he'd gotten. "What're you doing here?" he asked walking over to her. "Dad is partnering up with a local auto shop, Hummel or something like that." she told him, he was even more good looking than she remembered. "You're kidding. That's my step dad's business. I work there with him." Finn smiled, looking down at the girl he used to know. "Carol got remarried?! Good for her!" she exclaimed, remembering his mom. "Yeah she's really happy. What classes are you taking? I can walk you there." Finn asked, grabbing the paper from her hand. "History in room 304, that's not too far. Do you know where your locker is?" He asked. "No, it's number 1673," she told him, looking up at him. "That's right next to the choir room!" Finn told her excitedly.

They went to her locker where she placed her school bag and binders onto the built in metal shelves. "So, what's new with you. It's been such a long time." She asked, grabbing a binder for her morning class. "Not a whole lot, I'm pretty boring." Finn lied, not bringing up his engagement, his semi honourable discharge from the army, his break up with Rachel, or the fact that he's so lost in life- she didn't need to know that. "You are _not_ boring. That's something I know for sure." she laughed. The warning bell echoed through the halls which began to empty. "C'mon I'll walk you to class." Finn smiled, looking in to Taryn's eyes. He remembered the first time he'd laid eyes on her- she looked so much more grown up now. "You're so tall now, I feel so short," she commented. "You _are_ short, but it's cute. I like it." Taryn blushed. "This is it, I'll meet you at your locker at lunch, show you around some more." He smiled. "Thanks Finn," she replied, walking in to the class room.


	2. Join the Club

Periods one and two went by so slowly that Taryn could feel her head imploding. She was so nervous and excited to see Finn. She remembered their summers together. How cute he was, how much he'd changed. He was taller, and more muscular, and definitely more handsome. She wondered if she was still attractive to him. He had liked her at one point. He'd also left her. She shook that from her head- he must be different now. The bell to signal lunch rang and Taryn gathered her books and started walking towards the doors. She saw a tall, skinny, fair skinned, dark haired girl and a dark skinned girl with short hair cornered with two tall chunky foot ball players standing over them. They were holding slushies and laughing at them. Taryn watched, confused, as they threw the slushies at them. "What in the world do you think you're doing?!" She yelled, causing the two jocks to turn around and look at her. "What is wrong with you?!" She yelled at them, walking up to them angrily. "That was rude and you should apologize." She sneered. "Or what, you gunna yell at me more little girl?" the football player laughed. Taryn's face turned red and before she could think she brought her hand back and slapped the guy in the face as hard as she could. He reached up and covered the red mark on his face and Taryn came to realize what she did. She looked over at the two girls in the corner whose mouths were hanging open. She looked back at the foot ball player and quickly turned and walked away. "Yeah, you better run" she heard them call out from behind her. She turned the corner and leaned against the wall. _That was stupid. _"Hey, wait!" The two girls came around the corner and Taryn looked up to meet their eyes. "Hi, I'm Marley and this is Unique, we just wanted to..." Marley said, "Thank you." Unique said wiping slushie from herself. "Oh no problem, I just can't stand bullying. It's ridiculous."

"Well bullying is a big thing in these schools, so we could really use a person with guts like you." Marley said sweetly. "I'm Taryn, I'm new here." Taryn said, introducing herself. "Well we just wanted to say thanks, we better go get cleaned up." They left and Taryn felt a little empowered and looked up to see Finn watching her from her locker. "Hey, what's up?" she asked, as she reached her locker. "Nothing... you? It seems like you're making new friends." he said, nodding towards Marley and Unique. "Oh I just met them in the hall way- no big deal." Taryn laughed, choosing not to bring up the incident. She opened her locker and placed her binder inside. "Do you still sing?" Finn asked suddenly. "Uh, in the shower yes. In public not as much. That was always my brother, he was the talented one- remember?" Taryn said, looking at him confused. "Why?"

"I have some people I want you to meet." he smiled, taking her hand and dragging her in to the class room next to her locker.

"This is the McKinley high Glee Club, the New Directions." Finn told her. She waved sheepishly looking at the room of people. "Who is she?" asked a short blonde girl in a cheer leading uniform. "This is Taryn, she's an old friend of mine." Finn told the group. "She's a new transfer here and I thought she should check out glee club."

"Hey guys," said a man coming through the door in a dress shirt, vest and jeans. He had curly hair and a chin dimple. "Today I was thinking we could do- oh hi..." he stopped noticing Taryn. "This is Taryn, she's new and came to check out glee club." Finn smiled. "Hi Taryn, I'm mr. Shuester." he said introducing himself. "Anyways, I was thinking that since it's a new year we should start it off on a fun note and sing our guilty pleasure songs." he said after shooting Finn a confused look. The room buzzed with excitement. Taryn looked at the room and spotted two familiar faces. Marley and Unique were sitting in the middle of the room. They smiled and she waved. She turned to look at Finn. "Are you going to sing something?" she asked. He looked at her with a little smile. "I think you should."

"Me? What would I even sing."

"What's your guilty pleasure?"

"I don't have one." She told him.

"That's a lie. I bet you still sing Enrique Iglesias in your room."

"How do you even remember that?!" She gasped punching him in the arm lightly.

"It was cute! Sing some Enrique, Taryn."

"Am I even allowed? I don't know if I can sing in front of people alone."

"Hey Mr. Shue, can me and Taryn sing a song?"

"If you want," he replied, looking at Finn confusedly.

Everyone in the room seemed surprised to hear Finn sing. They'd only really heard him sing once this year, and it was when he was trying to get the glee club back together.

Finn whispered the name of the song into the pianists ear. The band then started playing and Taryn felt a huge smile sweep across her face. "Feel free to join in if you know the song," she told them nervously, looking at Marley and Unique who were smiling.

"_Do you know, do you know, do you know"_ Taryn sang, feeling the music. She forgot how much she liked singing. It made her happy.

"_Do you know what it feels like, lovin' someone who's in a rush to throw you away_"

Taryn looked over at Finn who was beaming at her singing. He looked like the boy she used to know.

The glee club joined in singing the background "_do you know_"'s .

"_do you know what it feels like to be the last one to know the lock on the door has changed_"

Taryn could feel the energy in the room shift and she started to move her feet to the beat while she danced. Everyone was singing and dancing along. She had always thought her voice to be mediocre however Finn always said she sang wonderfully.

As the song ended everyone applauded her and she took a small bow. "Wow, that was fantastic!" Mr. Shuester said clapping his hands together. He put his hands on her shoulders and turned to the class and said "What a great way to start off the assignment."

Taryn looked over at Finn and raised an eyebrow. She went and sat next to him again while everyone buzzed with excitement.


	3. The Past

"Wow, you are like 20 times better than I remember." Finn told her. "Wow girl, can you ever belt out an Enrique song." came a voice from beside her. She turned to see Unique pull a chair up beside her and sit down. "I hope this means you're joining the glee club- we could use a strong girl like you."

"Can I even still join? It's like the middle of the year." she asked.

"With talent like that you can join anytime you want," Finn told her.

"Please join!" Marley chimed in, walking over.

"I'd love to if you'll have me," Taryn replied.

"So it's settled, you are officially one of us!" Unique exclaimed.

"Hear that guys? New Directions has added a new member." Mr. Shue told the room.

The next 45 minutes of glee club rehearsal was spent introducing Taryn to the group and the group to her. They told her who they were and the past of the glee club.

As everyone was leaving Taryn stopped Finn.

"I'm confused, if you aren't a student here how come you're here?" she asked suspiciously. She learned Finn had graduated last year after they won nationals.

"I came back to help with the glee club, I don't really have any plans yet." Finn lied. Well, he really didn't have any plans for his life yet. He also didn't want to scare Taryn away with the details of his past.

"Where's Rachel? You two dated for a long time didn't you?" Taryn asked innocently.

"How do you..."

"Our parents still gossip like little book club ladies. I hear it all."

"So you heard about the engagement then..." Finn noted sadly.

"Engagement?"

"...or not."

"What engagement? Why do you sound sad? Finn are you okay?" Taryn asked all in one breath. She felt her eyebrows knit together.

"No, I'm not okay. But I will be." Finn told her sadly.

"You can talk to me, you know that. We used to tell each other everything." Taryn told him, grabbing his hand and squeezing it. Finn looked up at her and remembered when he'd first realized he'd had a crush on her. It wasn't something you forget, but it'd been so long. It was her eyes that really caught his attention. They were a strong, bright green- like fresh cut grass in the summer. They were looking into his now.

"Thanks Taryn, you were always one of my best friends. I hated that we lost touch."

_Best friend. _Taryn felt herself flinch slightly at the word.

Taryn had always had the hugest crush on Finn. Always. They had been so close for so long, he'd been her first kiss.

"So I was thinking maybe you could show me around Lima? I mean it's been so long I probably don't remember." Taryn said happily, getting up and pulling him up with her. She hadn't realized they'd been sitting so close.

"Sure, that sounds great."

Taryn had been lying, she remembered everything about Lima. It was a crappy little town but she loved it. It was extraordinarily different from her native New York, but it was all the things NYC wasn't. She'd come down here with her mom for the summers to visit her moms family, since she'd grown up here. Her dad and brother usually stayed in New York and Finn had never even met him. They probably wouldn't have gotten along anyway. Her brother was kind of a jerk to her. He always thought he was better. He was the better singer, the better dancer, the better student. What was she? It didn't matter- Brody went to NYADA now and she didn't have to deal with him. She rolled down her window and felt the warm breeze of Lima as her and Finn drove to the Lima Bean- the local coffee house. As Finn parked she unbuckled her seat belt. Finn put it in to park and looked over at Taryn. Her long wavy brown hair hanging loose over her shoulders. She was petite and pale skinned. She wore sunblock religiously because she burned so easily leaving her with pale porcelain skin. She was wearing a white sundress and little jean vest. Finn opened his door and met her at the front of his truck.

"Ready?" he asked her. "Yeah," she told him, a smile playing on her lips.

They walked in to the Lima Bean and stood in line behind a trio of blonde girls. "Hey guys!" came a voice from behind them. Finn turned around and saw Blaine getting in to line behind them. "Hey buddy, what's up?" Finn asked. "Long time no see" Blaine said winking. Taryn recognized him from the choir room. "Showing Taryn around Lima I see," Blaine commented. Blaine had a ridiculous amount of hair gel in his hair, but it suited him, thought Taryn. "Yeah, I used to come here in the summers but I haven't been here since the summer of grade nine I think." Taryn told him. "Oh cool! I didn't know that," Blaine said smiling. The summer where her heart had been broken. Finn nodded awkwardly, remembering that summer. Him and Taryn had been really good friends and that summer things were just _different_. He thought of her differently. She was beautiful. She told him that she liked him and he told her that he felt the same. Then without any warning at the end of the summer he told her they couldn't be together because he wasn't ready to be in a relationship. A few weeks after school started his facebook status had changed to In a relationship with Quinn Fabray. She'd gone through Quinn's facebook and seen she was a pretty, skinny, cheerleading blonde who was super religious. Finn became a football player, he dated a pretty blonde cheerleader- his life had become a cheesy classic teen movie. Meanwhile Taryn could never forget him. It took time but they eventually lost contact. Then a few years later she learned Finn was engaged to a girl named Rachel- who was the complete opposite of Quinn. She pretended it didn't affect her, but she was secretly sad that Finn had found love. She barely dated through high school. The one relationship she'd had ended badly with a jerk who'd cheated on her. "Next," called the barista. "Can we get two dark roast double doubles, thanks." Finn asked, handing her cash. "You didn't have to do that," Taryn said, nodding towards the barista in thanks as she grabbed her coffee. "As if you remember my coffee order." She laughed. "It the same as mine- how could I forget?" he smiled. "Bye Blaine!" Taryn called back, giving a quick wave. "So, how's being back in Lima?" Finn asked as they sat down. "Can't complain, I'm glad you were here so I'm not alone." She said, avoiding his eye contact while she took a sip of her coffee. "I'm glad you're back. Are you just here for the year?" he asked. "I'm not sure. I really don't have any post secondary plans." she told him. "Yeah that was my problem," Finn sighed. "Well you like glee club and you're a natural leader, have you ever thought of teaching?" Taryn asked. "I hadn't actually- but that's a pretty solid idea..." Finn agreed, something in his eyes lit up. "Well- I always was the smart one" Taryn nudged him jokingly.


End file.
